Notebook Sources for Gravity and Grace Quotations
Notebook Sources for Gravity and Grace Quotations
Compiled by Martin Andic, edited by Eric Springsted
Copyright Eric O. Springsted
Editions referred to:
Simone Weil, The Notebooks of Simone Weil, trans. Arthur Wills, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1956, 1976
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace trans. Emma Crauford, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1952, 1963.
Simone Weil, First and Last Notebooks, trans. Richard Rees, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1964.
Note that there are different translators for these works and so the wording in Gravity and Grace is not exactly the same as in the translation of any of the notebook volumes.
This correspondence between GG and the notebooks was done using the above editions. The most recent edition of GG edited by Mario von der Ruhr contains a chapter on Israel that was not in the original edition. Andic did not have this later English edition and so there are no correspondences for that chapter. Page numbers may be different between the two GG English editions; however, the entries are the same and therefore should be easily located in the new edition using the chart below as the entries and the wording is the same.
Introduction
Simone Weil’s introduction to the world at large was through the publication of Gravity and Grace in 1947. Weil had entrusted many of her papers and her notebooks to her friend Gustav Thibon, who after her death culled numerous bon mots from her notebooks to put together Gravity and Grace. To this day, it remains in the forefront of those Weil books that people know.
GG, however, presents some problems that every scholar must be aware of, and which probably should be recognized even by the casual reader, too. This book is in an important sense, Thibon’s book although the words are, of course, Weil’s. All the chapter headings categorizing each group of entries are Thibon’s. All of the entries are taken from Weil’s notebooks, but in no sense is their original context preserved or even hinted at it by Thibon. Two consecutive entries in GG may be separated by many pages in the original notebooks, and hence by even several years in their original composition. Often Weil used her notebooks as workbooks, and so a striking phrase may depend upon what went before it for its sense. Without context, it may be highly enigmatic, and, at times, unnecessarily so. It may also be experimental. None of that is possible to discern from GG which looks like a series of timeless pronouncements. To further complicate matters, when Thibon put these entries together, he did not always put all of an entry in, and occasionally, although he tended to keep quotations from separate places separate, there are block entries that look to be a continuous train of thought, even if it is a short one, that actually contain two quotations from the notebooks that are, in fact, widely separated. In some cases, a set of entries may have come from close proximity to each other, but Thibon has rearranged their order. For example, on pages 43-44 in the chapter on “Necessity and Obedience” one will note that there are four block entries that come from pages 155-156 in the notebooks, with the inclusion of one stray from page 150. Yet, as closely related as these are, they are hardly in their original order, as the first one in GG is 4th in the notebooks, the second one is first in the NB, the third is the third in the NB, and the fourth in GG is the second in order in the NB. In many cases, none of this may matter; in many cases, particularly when one wants to undertake a close reading, it really does.
Yet, GG is still widely read and deservedly so. One should keep it on her night stand. But, truth be told, for anyone who would write on Weil, GG is sand that one should carefully avoid building a house on. In GG the entries are striking and well worth quoting and thinking about. But they do not reflect Weil’s own ordering of them, or anything even close, even within separate chapters, to the flow of her thought. There is little in GG that will help one explain what Weil means, and if one sets oneself the task of explaining, then one has to look farther afield. For these reasons, it would seem to be important to know exactly where any entry in GG came from so that one can look at it in its original context. A good scholar may well read GG and be struck by something, but when she or he starts trying to explicate it, it really is necessary to put it in its original context, unless one is simply looking for a good pithy quote. But figuring out where a quote came from is a huge task, as the notebooks from which all of GG were taken run several hundred pages. Chasing the quotes down is a monumental task.
The late Martin Andic, who was truly a master Weil scholar, over the course of his career took on that task. Martin had a rare ability as well as an interest born of training in classical philosophy to pin down citations. When he wrote essays on Weil ( or anybody else for that matter) his footnotes often looked like a running syntopicon of ideas taken from the history of philosophy which were related to the text at hand. There was no one who had a better ability to chase down a quote. Over the course of his career, Martin patiently found each GG quote as it originally appeared in the Notebooks. This was made harder by the fact that, working in English, GG and the Notebooks of Simone Weil were translated by different people and so the same quote is not always word for word identical in GG and the Notebooks. After Martin’s death, I came into possession of his extensive Weil library and notes. He had long talked about this project and it was his wish that this very helpful work be made public. I am therefore happy to put together a useable chart from the notations he made in his copy of GG, and to summarize here some of the issues surrounding Gravity and Grace.
Eric O. Springsted
A Chart for the Notebook Sources of Gravity and Grace
The notebook page numbers refer to The Notebooks of Simone Weil except in a few cases where the page is preceded by an ‘F’; in these cases, the citation is from The First and Last Notebooks.
It is assumed that an entry continues on from the end of one page to the top of the next page; however, pay attention to the first words of any citation to make sure. There are a few instances in which the citation has not been located in the notebooks.
Chapter:
GRAVITY AND GRACE
page 1: Notebook page number
All the natural... ?
We must always 152
Two forces rule 114
Gravity. Generally what 138
What is the reason 151
Lear, a tragedy 138
The object of an 124
page 2
What is base 84
If it be true 114
Queuing for food. 122
I must not forget 153
page 3
Attitude of supplication: 179
The source of man’s moral 222
To come down 384
Creation is composed 388
page 4
Grace is the law 308
To lower onself 221
Too great affliction 141
VOID AND COMPENSATION
page 5
Human mechanics 122
The tendency to spread 128
It is impossible 137
The wish to see 158
page 6
The tendency to 182
To harm a person 181
To forgive. We 136
Headaches. At a certain 59
The search for equilibrium 140
page 7
A man who lived 546
Those whose city had 157
A situation which is 36
Tragedy of those who, 153
page 8
A rock in our path. 163
To grasp ( in each thing) 126
Energy, freed 175
Every kind of reward 251
Self-satisfaction over 251
A purely imaginary reward 124
page 9
A beloved being who 200
TO ACCEPT THE VOID
page 10
Tradition teaches us 190
Grace fills empty 198
The necessity for a reward 138
page 11
The world must be 148
To love truth means 160
Man only escapes 156
DETACHMENT
page 12
Affliction in itself 211
Two ways of renouncing 130
The extinction of desie 550
page 13
Always, beyond the particular 491
We must leave on one 149
To love God through 258
The reality of the world 318
page 14
Affliction which forces us 224?
Attachment is a 334
As soon as we know 366
Attachment is no more 365
Human misery would be 252
All suffering which does 216
Never to think of a being 218
page 15
Two ways of killing 40
The miser deprives himself 421
Electra weeping 583
IMAGINATION WHICH FILLS THE VOID
page 16
The imagination is 150
Every void ( not accepted) 139
The militiamen of the 166
The imagination, filler up 160
page 17
Compensations. 199
The adoration of the 146
In no matter what 145
We must continually suspend 145
RENUNCIATION OF TIME
page 18
Time is an image 244
The miser whose 183
The future is a filler 157
The past and the future 244
The present does not 618
When we are 619
page 19
Time and the cave 551?
A method of purification 136
When pain and weariness 282
TO DESIRE WITHOUT AN OBJECT
page 20
Purification is the 514
We have to go 203
If we go down into 20
page 21
To ascertain exactly what 180
To lose someone 28
We must not seek the 160
The void is the 149
Christ experience all 149
The handshake of a 237
page 22
Denial of Saint Peter 148
To implore a man 188
THE SELF
page 23
We possess nothing 336
Offering: We cannot 337
Nothing in the 337
page 24
Redemptive suffering 342
In affliction, the 223
page 25
Quasi-hell on earth 253
For those whose 338
page 26
The weaker the 339
The agony of 337
page 27
Niobe also, of 546
The sin in 126
The Pharisees were 180
Perfect joy excludes 179
DECREATION
page 28
Decreation: to make 247?
Creation is an act 613
Relentless necessity, 401
There exists a 229
page 29
An imaginary divinity 229
Renunciation. Imitation of 193
We are like barrels 453
Elevation and abasement 244
Everything which is 309
We only possess 544
Catholic communion. God 99
page 30
He emptied himself 217
There is a resemblance 241
Reversal of the 527
Except the seed die 179
page 31
The extreme difficulty 300
For men of 236
renunciation demands that 203
page 32
When the passion 292
If we consider 216
There are only two 469
Death. An instantaneous 183
page 33
If we find 291
Joy within God 335
Those who wish 366
Belief in immortality 492
The presence of God 344
God could create 230
Being and having. 127
page 34
Job. Satan to 261
Appearance clings to 230
It is necessary to 298
It is necessary not 298
To uproot oneself 298
SELF-EFFACEMENT
page 35
God gave me 484
The self is 419
To be what the 401
page 36
All the things 378
I cannot conceive 403
‘Et la mort 383
page 37
May I disappear 383
I do not in 422
NECESSITY AND OBEDIENCE
page 38
The sun shines on 140
We have to consent 39
Subordination. Economy of 187
In which cases 250
We have to deserve 260
Obedience is the 96
There are cases 224
page 39
The pomegranate see. 402
We should do 150
We should not take 234
If my eternal salvation 275
Detachment from the 124
page 40
Every act should 230
‘Iwas naked 436
“I was an hungered 358
page 41
In general the 358
We should not 360
To be only an intermediary 126
With all things 531
The will of God 233
page 42
In prayer we 307
We can never know 418
The use of temptations 278
page 43
Every creature which 363
Necessity. We have to 156
Obedience. There are 155
The words of 155
Obedience is the only 150
However much we give 155
page 44
Action is the pointer 294
The Foolish Virgins 585
When the inward 376
In contemplation, 361
ILLUSIONS
page 45
We are drawn 562
Things of the senses 468
Appearance has the 424
Illusions about the 549
Actions effectively carried out 498
Strictly speaking time...(p.46) 71
page 46
The miser’s treasure 551, 553
The soul which 325
Necessity is essentially 326
What is real 410
page 47
In the spiritual life 326?
There is a distinction 320
How can we distinguish 321
That which distinguishes 312
Humility has as its 320
A test of what is 369
We must try to love 273
After having experienc 551
page48
There is always a 217
Cure for imaginary 326
Transposition: we believe 123
All the passions 273
We must be careful 126
page 49
The lower parts of 149
Fear of God in 174
The flesh is 273
Why is the determination 472
God and the supernatural 230
page 50
Morality and literature. 355
A science which 151
It is bad to 339
Different types of 130
If we except 121
page 51
Duration, whether 444
I should look 301
Everything that is 586
page 52
That which makes us 622
I need God to 622
IDOLATRY
page 53
Idolatry comes from 505
Lacking idols, it 150
Ideas are changeable, 150
All men are 248
Man would like 279
page 54
We do not 274